Girl can wear tuxedo to prom

John DeSantisSenior Staff Writer

Tuesday

Mar 29, 2011 at 11:11 AM

Terrebonne Parish public school officials are backing off enforcement of a school-based rule — also contained in policies at the district's other three high schools — that mandates tuxes for boys and gowns for girls.

HOUMA — When Monique Verdin wears her rented tuxedo to the Ellender High prom Saturday night, nobody will stand in her way.Terrebonne Parish school officials said Monday they are backing off enforcement of a school-based rule — also contained in policies at the district's other three high schools — that mandates tuxes for boys and gowns for girls.Verdin, 19, and her father, Jody Bergeron, were told Friday by the school's principal, Cory Butler, and high-schools supervisor Tony Authement that the teen would be allowed to buy a ticket to the prom but barred from entrance if she wore a tuxedo.Authement confirmed Friday that the district planned to enforce the rule. On Monday, however, he said attorneys advised him the stance would be difficult to defend in court.“We are going to allow her,” Authement said. “It was an easy call,” said attorney Berwick Duval, who represents the School Board. “It's a First Amendment issue.” “It's a good thing,” the teenager said. “They shouldn't have put me through so much trouble like that.”ACLU Louisiana Executive Director Marjorie Esman sent a letter to school officials throughout Louisiana on Friday explaining the organization's stance on gender-specific clothing requirements and bans on same-sex couples buying tickets for proms. The letter said case-law supports gender-neutral rules and tolerance for diversity.“I figured they might change their minds because of the letter they got from the ACLU,” Verdin said.Esman said the ACLU had been considering its legal options when they heard about school officials' change of heart.“They are doing the right thing by recognizing Monique's right to wear the clothing she has chosen,” Esman said. Verdin said she wants to wear a tux not because she was trying to make a statement about sexual orientation but because she does not like wearing dresses. There were no plans for her 32-year-old girlfriend to accompany her to the prom, she said, because of a policy that bans attendees older than 21.Informed that the school had relented, Verdin's father said the right thing is to throw out the gender-restrictive rule.“Let the students wear what they want to wear; throw it out the window,” Bergeron said. “Let girls go with girls if they want, boys go with boys. You can't stop that.”Authement said Sunday the rule is rooted in tradition. But former Ellender students who are female said they had worn tuxes to prom in years past. Asked about that, Authement said he does not know what year the rule went into effect, but he is aware that some cross dressing took place in the past.The supervisor himself is not a stranger to controversy on such matters. During his tenure as principal of H.L. Bourgeois High, Authement barred a male student from taking his chosen date, a male Nicholls State University student, to the school's prom.Schools Superintendent Philip Martin then reminded H.L. Bouregois administrators that federal-education law bars discrimination on the basis of gender. Authement relented. The boys ended up not attending the prom together, however, because they broke up prior to the dance. Allowing a girl to wear a tux or a boy to wear a dress is not covered specifically by any U.S. Supreme Court case. But the gender-specific-clothing mandates have been addressed in federal court. A clear government interest capable of trumping First Amendment rights to freedom of expression and association must be demonstrated, attorneys have said, for such a rule to withstand constitutional scrutiny.Authement said the rules mandating gender-specific dress for proms will likely be scrapped altogether.Duval said the policy was not previously scrutinized by attorneys because it is school-based, not a districtwide mandate.Verdin, who has already picked up the tuxedo she plans to wear to Saturday's dance, says she's just grateful the issue was resolved.“This is good for my friends because I get to go with them and they get to go, and I can have fun with them.”

Senior Staff Writer John DeSantis can be reached at 850-1150 or john.desantis@dailycomet.com

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